I like to study the Bible and wrestle with its words. I must fit it and find my place in it. Jesus has promises contained here that I need to understand, and commands that I must obey, and joy that I can experience, and grace that I can receive. What about you?

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Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Is Eye Witness Testimony Reliable?

Image via WikipediaLawyers seem to have a real affinity for eye witness testimony even though all the tests and evaluations seem to indicate that eye witness are not usually very accurate. If five people witness an accident, they will give very different accounts of the events. And yet we still believe what the eye witnesses say.

In Acts 1 Luke depends heavily on eye witness accounts. He investigated and found a unity in their reports that was convincing evidence that Jesus had risen from the dead. Luke talks about the various behaviors Jesus engaged in. He says Jesus ate with them and talked to them. Mostly, he emphasizes that he was among them, alive, walking, talking, and eating. He says Jesus gave many convincing proofs that he was alive.

No matter that they may remember the events differently, an eye witness is someone who was present. We want to know what the witness saw and heard and did. In Luke's account, he is intent on making his readers know that the proofs were real. Jesus had been dead. They had buried him. Then he rose and he was alive. They saw him taken up into heaven. He went into heaven alive. This was real.

Read Acts 1 for yourself. Note all the ways Luke wants to prove that Jesus was alive.